Game based on Iraqi war - is it too soon?

Tuesday 7 April 2009 02.33 EDT
First published on Tuesday 7 April 2009 02.33 EDT

Hugely entertaining it may have been but Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare had a few uncomfortable moments. Shooting at "insurgents" from a helicopter never had the moral certainty that you got from gunning down Nazis in previous COD games. And maybe the floodgates have now been opened. Konami have announced a game based on the war in Iraq. 6 Days in Fallujah is set around the 2004 battle and is apparently based on the videos and stories of the soldiers involved.

Seemingly aware of the difficulties in the project, Peter Tamte of developers Atomic Games said:

For us, the challenge was how do you present the horrors of war in a game that is also entertaining, but also gives people insight into a historical situation in a way that only a video game can provide? Our goal is to give people that insight, of what it's like to be a Marine during that event, what it's like to be a civilian in the city and what it's like to be an insurgent.

Konami – a surprising choice of publisher to be honest - themselves are pushing the story angle. Anthony Crouts, Konami's vice president of marketing:

Some of these soldiers came right out of high school. They went from boys to men in the span of two weeks.

As you would expect there have been dissenting voices. Celia Pearce, professor of digital media and director of the Experimental Game Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology said:

Making a fun game about war is hypocritical, because war is not fun. That's why many shooters have cartoon hyper-violence that's just physically impossible. It's exaggerated for the sake of entertainment. And it's also done to distance people from the violence, because it's an obvious special effect.

The game – a third person tactical shooter – is due out in 2010. Yes, only about six years after the battle took place. Is that too soon? Possibly, although my main concern is how they translate the experience of the non-combatants and insurgents into a "game" without it becoming Gears of War: Iraq. What do you think of 6 Days in Fallujah then?